A STREET FIGHT FOR MCCLUNG

Philosophy is not the only thing that differentiates Judge Pat McClung from challenger Dan Street, but their differing theories on the way juvenile justice should be administered have set everyone associated with juvenile crime on edge.

The contest for the 305th District Court bench began when Street (a lifelong Republican) made a last-minute file to run against the incumbent judge (a lifelong Democrat who recently turned Republican) in the upcoming May primary. The Republican party isn’t granting official endorsements to either candidate, so each will be campaigning for votes by himself.

The irony is that when Street was one of the DA’s juvenile prosecutors he received much of his training in Mc-Clung’s courtroom. Street is currently Judge Craig Pen-fold’s referee-master (assistant) in the 304th District Court, but Penfold, by necessity and propriety, is staying out of Street’s affairs.

“Voters will be choosing between two philosophies, ” says one court source. “Street, like Judge Penfold, promulgates a psychological approach. They both try to figure out why the child went wrong, and that’s why probation officers get along with them. ” Judge McClung has a “punishment” approach, the source says, which makes him seem more closely aligned with law enforcement.

At first appraisal, Judge McClung has the May 1 primary sewn up. He won the Dallas Bar poll with 1,116 votes to Street’s 459. But Street’s support among probation officers and attorneys who are disenchanted with the way the 305th District Court has been run is quite impressive for a young man not long out of law school.

“I have the best chance of beating him of anyone who’s ever run against him, ” Street says of McClung. He has forgotten, perhaps, that when Theo Bedard ran against Judge McClung, the race was, in a word, close. Judge McClung did not do so well in the judicial evaluation poll conducted by the Dallas Bar last October. Eighteen percent of the lawyers who voted said Judge McClung did not demonstrate a proper judicial temperament and demeanor. Street is quick to harp on that.